OK, so 200 of said bullets arrive from Foxy very well packed at £60 + very reasonable P&P.
On initial inspection they look fine.
It was commented to me recently that they had little rings and marks and this is true if you look for them, but they are very fine and you cannot feel them, I can only assume that had they been tumbled in the same cement mixer as Berger they would be equally as shiny. The surface finish is very consistent.
Another thing that struck me as I counted them (They came in a plastic bag and I want them into 100 boxes, so I counted them as they went through the pointing die, nothing to do with trusting fox I assure you), was firstly just how crisp the meplats were, but also the fact that there was not one that was bent over, bashed in, or looked like it was picked off the floor.....again common in my experience with more expensive bullets.
Pointing? Yes, they are quite large meplats (sorry, I did not measure them, I am sure its out there somewhere) and I point as a matter of course as a final audit, it means I have to handle each bullet (with loading gloves of course...I have rusty fingers!!!).
So its weighing time.
Generally 195 fell into a band between 154.89 and 155.24. About a 40/40/20 split 154.89-155.09/155.10-155.19/155.20-155.24.
Half a dozen or so were mongs....155.30-155.42....foulers sorted then
Better than any bullet I have yet batched (Bergers 155.5 and hybrids and Sierra 2156).
So onto bearing surfaces then.
A very quick task this as the whole lot (even the foulers) fell between 0.564-0.5655....every single one, bust.
I have to admit that I only measured ogive to base, but that alone was consistent enough to be encouraging and I am no Laurie Holland, I used one of Ovenpaas comparators, but I dont have the boat tail section for measuring the pure BS as yet.
So it looks encouraging.
One final thought, I could not help comparing them with a 155 Hybrid, to the naked eye they look very, very similar, although shorter (the HBC is said to have better stability in a 13" twist than the Hybrid). BC is of course lower, but with my shooting.....
So, ideally its 2 tests with my normal band over N140 and IMR4895 at 200 on sunday with COLs to follow.
Those I know who use these have found they work ok about 10 thou off, so I will load them as I do my 2156 which is pretty close.
I will keep you posted with a very rudimentary load test zzzzom